The present invention pertains to vehicle visors and particularly to method and apparatus for securing a covering to a visor core.
Visors employed on automobiles typically are made of a core covered by an upholstery fabric. Early visors have been made with a fiberboard-type core, and in recent years, molded polymeric cores of the type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,926,470 have been employed. Foam core construction is popular in European visors in which a solid foam material is employed to form the underlying body for the visor constructions. In such visors, to provide an attractive appearance, typically, the visor will be covered with an upholstery material colored and textured to match the interior upholstery of the vehicle.
In visors which include an illuminated vanity mirror package, as disclosed in the above identified U.S. Patent, it is necessary to bond the edge of the upholstery material where it is cut out to provide a trim appearing opening for receiving the lighted mirror package. In the past, this has been achieved by employing an adhesive material bonding the edge of the visor upholstery material to the polymeric core in the area surrounding the recess. Also, with some difficulty, the material has been ultrasonically welded around the recess. The mirror package also included a frame with a peripheral flange which overlies the upholstery material around the recess such that, when installed, the visor will have an overall neat and trim appearance.
Also, in prior visor constructions, typically, an edge trim bead has been employed around the periphery of the visor body and sewn in place. Recently, the edge bead has been eliminated and the edges of the fabric stitched through the edge of polypropylene core material or a thin cardboard edge piece has been stapled to the core and the material, in turn, stitched through the peripherally extended cardboard. Although this eliminates the need for the edge trim bead, stitching directly through the polymeric core is difficult and results in frequent fracturing of needles employed in the stitching equipment. The utilization of a cardboard strip fitted around the periphery of the visor eliminated this difficulty but added both manufacturing and material costs to the visor.